Bob,
I assume that since you're only interested in Chesapeake Bay, you
have sufficient coverage if you have an antenna for a digi up a
hundred feet or so? That is, somewhere has line of sight to most of the bay?
I guess for California, the comparable situation would be San Francisco Bay.
You probably couldn't for instance, track an ambitious sea kayaker
down the entire Pacific Coast, using the terrestrial APRS network.
But the idea of using the ARISS packet digi is intriguing. Is it
actually working? Someone had mentioned that the Amateur stuff on
ISS was shut down, except for school contacts.. and there's no
obvious place to go for status on the ARISS page.
Jim, W6RMK